The Dallas Mavericks need all the help they can get to return to the NBA Finals.
Luka Doncic made his return Sunday night after missing six of the Mavs’ last seven games due to a wrist injury. Dallas kept rolling anyway, winning five of the six games in which their franchise player was missing.
A huge reason for that is the emergence of P.J. Washington, who averaged 17.1 points on 47.8% shooting, 11 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 1.3 steals in those seven games from Nov. 17 – Nov. 30.
Washington continued his success with Doncic in the lineup, finishing with 18 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and one steal in Dallas’ 121-113 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
“We got to find a way to have P.J. play this way with Luka and Kai (Kyrie Irving) and Klay (Thompson),” Mavs coach Jason Kidd. “That’s the goal. He can’t take a step back. We got to continue to keep pushing him and I think he’s up to that challenge.”
Washington understands that Doncic and Irving are the ones responsible for carrying the load, but he’s ready to step up when he needs to.
“We try to play off Kai and Luka, they’re great players,” Washington said. “But when it’s our time, we got to step up and make the shot, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Doncic, in turn, values the contributions the Dallas native brings to the team.
“P.J. always brings it,” Doncic said. “Just very positive guy, keeps us together. We have so many leaders on the team, and the chemistry is off the roof…He’s vocal, he’s always positive…He can guard, probably guards the best player every night, and then rebounding. I see he had seven assists today, playmaking…Back to back two big shots, so we have all the trust in the world with him.”
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